Fort Warren (Massachusetts)
Fort Warren | |
Boston, Massachusetts | |
Coordinates | 42°19′12.84″N 070°55′39.5″W / 42.3202333°N 70.927639°W |
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Area | 40 acres (16 ha) |
Built | 1834–1860 |
Architect | Thayer, Lt. Col. Sylvanus; Army Corps of Engineers |
Architectural style | Third System fort |
Part of | American Civil War prison camps (1861–1865) Harbor Defenses of Boston (1899–1947) |
NRHP reference No. | 70000540[1] |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | August 29, 1970 |
Designated NHLD | August 29, 1970 |
Fort Warren is a historic
Fort Warren is a
Early history
Fort Warren was built from 1833 to 1861 and was completed shortly after the beginning of the American Civil War as part of the third system of US fortifications.
The Army engineer in charge during the bulk of the fort's construction was Colonel
Civil War
During the Civil War, the island fort served as a prison for captured Confederate army and navy personnel,[5] elected civil officials from the state of Maryland, and Northern political prisoners. The fort was commanded by Colonel Justin Dimick from 1861 to 1864. Dimick was noted for his humane and compassionate treatment of the Confederate prisoners held at the fort. Of over 1,000 Confederate prisoners at the fort, only 13 died there, giving Fort Warren a much lower mortality rate than any other prisoner of war camp (Union or Confederate) during the Civil War.
On August 19, 1863, six prisoners of war attempted an escape from the prison. Two were caught while still on the island, two were caught while sailing toward Canada and the prison authorities claimed to believe that the other two drowned, no trace of them after swimming toward shore apparently having been found.[6][7]
The famous Union marching song
Post–Civil War through Endicott Period
In the 1870s Fort Warren was upgraded with new barbette batteries on the parapets along with a six-gun external battery; these were armed with Rodman guns.[2] A plaque at the fort states that the southeast bastion was roofed over at this time to create a rare (possibly unique) casemated 15-inch Rodman gun battery. The massive brick arches built to enclose this bastion are impressive.
From 1892 to 1903 Fort Warren was rebuilt to accommodate modern breech-loading rifled guns under the Endicott program. Five batteries were added to the fort, replacing some of the older gun positions, as follows:[4][8]
Name | No. of guns | Gun type | Carriage type | Years active |
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Adams | 1 | 10-inch gun M1888 |
disappearing M1894 | 1899–1914 |
Bartlett |
4 | 10-inch gun M1888 |
disappearing, 2 M1894, 2 M1896 | 1899–1942 |
Lowell | 3 | 3-inch gun M1898 |
masking parapet M1898 | 1900–1920 |
Plunkett | 2 | 4-inch gun M1896 |
pedestal M1896 | 1899–1920 |
Stevenson | 2 | 12-inch gun M1895 | disappearing M1897 | 1903–1944 |
The two 12-inch (305 mm) and five 10-inch (254 mm) guns were the fort's main armament against enemy battleships. For defense against smaller vessels, particularly to defend nearby mine fields against minesweepers, two 4-inch (102 mm) and three 3-inch (76 mm) guns were included. The 4-inch guns were a Navy design by Driggs-Schroeder, and in the whole US Army coast defense system only Fort Warren and Fort Washington in Maryland had this type of gun.[9] Battery Adams was built of low-quality concrete and was disarmed and abandoned due to deterioration in 1914.[4]
World War I through World War II
Fort Warren was the headquarters of the
In 1920, with World War I over, several weapon types were withdrawn from Coast Artillery service. These included the 4-inch Driggs-Schroeder guns of Battery Plunkett and the 3-inch Driggs-Seabury guns of Battery Lowell. None of these were replaced.[4] The 4-inch guns at Fort Warren remained as display pieces at least through 1941.[9]
During World War II, the fort served as a control center for Boston Harbor's south mine field, a precaution taken in anticipation of potential attacks by Kriegsmarine U-boats.[11] At that time, Fort Warren was garrisoned by the 241st Coast Artillery Regiment (Harbor Defense), a Massachusetts National Guard unit that was federalized in September, 1940. As new 16-inch batteries were built, particularly Battery Murphy at the East Point Military Reservation, Fort Warren's remaining guns were scrapped in 1942–1944. Fort Warren was permanently decommissioned after 1950. At some point an emplacement of Battery Bartlett was demolished for an access road.
Decommissioning and opening to the public
Fort Warren was owned by the
Today, the
The fort is typically open from early or mid May through Columbus Day weekend. DCR Rangers offer guided tours, or you may explore on your own. An information booth just outside the sally port (the main entrance to the fort) posts information about available activities. The island offers a well-stocked snack bar, water fountains, and a large number of composting toilets. There is also a museum located in the old mine storehouse (the red brick building opposite the ferry dock), a number of picnic tables, and a children's play structure. The tops of several of the walls and several of the casemates and magazines beneath them are open to visitors. The dock side of the fort features two Civil War
Confederate memorial
The Commonwealth's only Confederate memorial, a headstone which commemorates 13 southern soldiers who died while imprisoned during the Civil War at the fort was housed on the island until 2017. The headstone marker was installed in 1963 by the Boston Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Governor Charlie Baker called for the removal of the memorial in June 2017.[12] The state subsequently covered over and removed the monument in October 2017 and stored it in the Massachusetts State Archives.[13][14][15]
Gallery
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Map of Georges Island and Fort Warren
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3-inch Ordnance riflesconverted to breechloading saluting guns
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Inside the casemated, roofed-over southeast bastion
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Two-gun casemate, southeast bastion
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One of the large arches that encloses the southeast bastion
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A line of arches connecting casemates
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Memorial to 13 Confederates who died as prisoners at Fort Warren
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Memorial to Edward Rowe Snow, who fought to preserve Fort Warren
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Demilune (half-moon) battery defending the sally port
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A flank defense
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Battery Jack Adams, one 10-inch M1888 disappearing gun. Completed 1899, abandoned 1914 due to low-quality concrete.
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A 1945 map of the mine fields protecting Boston Harbor during World War II, showing mine groups controlled from Fort Warren on Georges Island
See also
- List of Civil War POW Prisons and Camps
- 9th Coast Artillery (United States)
- 241st Coast Artillery (United States)
- List of National Historic Landmarks in Boston
- National Register of Historic Places listings in southern Boston, Massachusetts
- Seacoast defense in the United States
- United States Army Coast Artillery Corps
- List of military installations in Massachusetts
Notes
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
- ^ a b c Fort Warren at NorthAmericanForts.com
- ^ Weaver, pp. 105–109
- ^ a b c d e Fort Warren at FortWiki.com
- ^ "NHL nomination for Fort Warren". National Park Service. Retrieved 2014-06-15.
- ^ Curtius, Quintus (2021-07-03). "Escape From Fort Warren". Quintus Curtius. Retrieved 2021-07-03.
- ^ "Escape from Fort Warren". Harper's New Monthly Magazine. 28: 697–701. April 1864.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ Berhow, p. 205
- ^ a b Berhow, pp. 84–85
- ^ US Army Railway Guns in World War I
- ^ HD Boston, WWII underwater defenses at FortWiki.com
- ^ Guerra, Cristela (2017-10-02). "State's only Confederate memorial will be removed". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2017-10-03.
- ^ "Boston's Only Confederate Memorial Will Move Out Of Public View". www.wbur.org. Retrieved 2019-08-05.
- ^ The Future Of Faneuil Hall, archived from the original on 2021-12-21, retrieved 2019-08-05
- ^ Monuments and Memory: A Confederate Marker in Boston, archived from the original on 2021-12-21, retrieved 2021-05-16
References
- Berhow, Mark A., ed. (2015). American Seacoast Defenses, A Reference Guide (Third ed.). McLean, Virginia: CDSG Press. ISBN 978-0-9748167-3-9.
- Hesseltine, William B., Ed. (1962). Civil War Prisons. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) (This book contains a chapter on Fort Warren's use as POW depot.) - Howard, F. K. (Frank Key) (1863). Fourteen Months in American Bastiles. London: H.F. Mackintosh. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
- Lewis, Emanuel Raymond (1979). Seacoast Fortifications of the United States. Annapolis: Leeward Publications. ISBN 978-0-929521-11-4.
- Marshall, John A. (1871). American Bastille: A History of the Illegal Arrests and Imprisonment of American Citizens.., 8th Ed. Philadelphia: Thomas W. Hartley.
- Schmidt, Jay (2003). Fort Warren: New England's Most Historic Civil War Site. Amherst, NH: Unified Business Technologies Press. ISBN 0-9721489-4-9.
- Stephens, Alexander H. (1998). Recollections - His Diary Kept While a Prisoner at Fort Warren. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8071226-8-6. (reprint edition)
- Weaver II, John R. (2018). A Legacy in Brick and Stone: American Coastal Defense Forts of the Third System, 1816-1867, 2nd Ed. McLean, VA: Redoubt Press. ISBN 978-1-7323916-1-1.
External links
- Island Facts: Georges Island – Includes Fort Warren information from the National Park Service
- Boston Harbor Islands: Georges Island
- List of all US coastal forts and batteries at the Coast Defense Study Group, Inc. website
- Harbor Defenses of Boston at NorthAmericanForts.com